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Billionaire Sir Leonard Blavatnik has pumped a further $587mn into DAZN, his sports streaming platform, taking his total investment above $7bn in under a decade.
DAZN losses narrowed last year to $936mn from $1.4bn the year before, according to accounts filed at Companies House this week. Revenues increased by $323mn to $3.2bn in 2024 as the broadcaster added new sporting events to its line-up.
Shay Segev, DAZN chief executive, told the Financial Times that the group was on course to be profitable for the first time next year and had started to think about the future, including a potential IPO.
DAZN held talks with potential investors among US funds over the summer to gauge interest in a potential listing.
“We’re aiming for at least $5bn in revenues for this year,” Segev said. “The margins are improving, our key markets are already profitable in 2025 and we are comfortable saying that in 2026 the group will be profitable as well.”
The accounts for 2024 show that the company received $587mm in support from its majority shareholder, Blavatnik’s Access, up from $240mn in 2023. No further money from Access has been required so far this year, and Segev said DAZN hoped this would be the first year without relying on its parent company for support.
“This business has a very big potential to generate a lot of free cash. Happily, we have now reached the point. Our shareholders believe in this business. They put a lot of investment in this business,” he said.
The accounts also confirm the injection of $1bn into the group by Surj, a sports investment company owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which the filings say will be used for working capital and new investments.
“It’s a global platform, and to accelerate [growth] we probably need to have more capital,” Segev said, saying that this could come either from the public markets or private investors.
DAZN has struck a number of deals over both new sports content as well as corporate takeovers since the end of the financial year reported in the accounts.
In April, DAZN took control of Australian pay TV platform Foxtel for about $2.2bn, which was paid in part in shares to owners News Corp and Telstra. News Corp now owns 6 per cent and Telstra has 3 per cent.
In May, DAZN struck a $1bn deal with Fifa to become the exclusive rights holder for the Fifa Club World Cup in the US. The group made the tournament free to view worldwide to help build brand awareness in new markets.
Segev aspires to reach 1bn active users for a site that he wants to style as the “Spotify of sport”, combining live games and boxing with fan areas, stats and betting.
“We always knew that this is a journey to build a global digital platform [and] we’re starting to see the result of all the investment that we are putting in,” he said. “We are now at the tipping point. I would say that we are now the biggest football platform in the world.”
